u 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Jan. 2, 1885. 



finite," as if this were a luinial dowry of the soul, and which 

 constructs its pictures of island dwellers to whom the ocean, 

 of valley dwellers to whom the rivers, fed from mysterious 

 sources, the protecting mountains with their inaccessible 

 summits, and the overarching sky wei'e alike the Unknown, 

 becoming in the end their God. And, wiih reluctance be 

 it added, it is the Historical scliojl which, limiting the area 

 of its sympathies, llings the sneer at relics of a prehistoric 

 past with their witnesses to an ascent of man, and mis- 

 represents the anthropologists as making every fact tit into 

 ■their immobile division of the ages of progress. Because, 

 as a young student. Professor Max Miiller witnessed the 

 collapse of the empirical theories of development rife in 

 Germany forty years a^o, he predicts a like fate for the 

 -evolution theories of to-day. JVon sequitur. But the Pro- 

 fessor's prejudices are more damaging to his cause than his 

 prophecies, when, speaking of the anthropological method, 

 he says : " I ditl'er from it ; I have no taste for it. I also 

 think it often very misleading." 



It may not be to the polemical advantage of the 

 Historical school, although it would prove its candour, that 

 Professor Max Miiller should conquer his distaste for the 

 mass of evidence — much of it confessedly unsavoury — with 

 which the " Theoretical " school supports its arguments. 

 But the facts are there ; facts as to the limitations and 

 feeble vocabularies of Iiarbario peoples ; as to their myths, 

 often coarse and irrational ; as to their religious customs, 

 often disgusting and brutal ; and they must be reckoned 

 with, whether as degradations of nobler endowments and 

 beliefs, or as arrested developments, or as the expression of 

 germinal ideas. 



Enough has been said to indicate the serious questions 

 ■which are raised by Mr. Lang, and tlie settlement of which 

 will determine whether the exclusive method which he 

 controverts is to give place to that scientific method 

 svhich investigates the history of man in the sum of his 

 customs and beliefs throughout the world from remote 

 times until now. As to the issue there can be no doubt. 



But in reviewing the manifold subjects of abiding inte- 

 rest so luminously treated by Mr. Lang, it is to be regretted 

 that he has n-jt told us what residuum of truth he recog- 

 nises in the solar theory so far as the results based upon 

 philological evidence, upon terms in Greek and Sanskrit 

 whose cognate likeness is proved, and upon the survival of 

 anthropomorphic notions about nature, are concerned. 

 This we may perhaps learn in. a future volume, when the 

 •case against the comparative mjthologists is stated in more 

 related form. For the work before us is, as hinted at the 

 outset of this notice, a series of article.^ more or less 

 detached, sent out, like scout i, before the regular troops 

 advance in well-ordered array. And in the day of conflict 

 the sun will not stand still upon Gibeon, nor moon in the 

 Valley of Ajalon to give victory to the solar mythologists. 

 Mr. Lang's book is to be commended to the perusal of every 

 student of the science of human progress. 



SOME BOOKS OX OUR TABLE. 



Darkness and Damn, the Peaceful Birtli of a New Aye. 

 ■(London : Kegan Paul, Trench,' & Co. 188-4.)— The first 

 part of this altogether remarkable volume mainly consists 

 of a string of vituperation (in pseudo-Euskinesque) of 

 existing social conditions in England. In the fecnnd 

 portion, its author describes, in a species of prophetic 

 vision, how all the evils from which we are now suffering 

 were at once and for ever aVirogated by the simple process 

 of throwing everything into what lawyers call " hotchpot," 

 abolisldng all property, rights, and social distinctions, and 

 making every man in the Briti-h Islands not only as good 



as every other man, " but," as the Irishman once observed, 

 " a grate dale betther, too." That commercial morality 

 is at a low ebb, that a vast amount of preventible suffering 

 obtains among the working-classes, and that huge fortunes 

 are made by those but ill qualified to benefit either them- 

 selves or others by such acquirement, we are assuredly not 

 concerned to deny. Whether, though. Socialism, pure and 

 simple, aflfords a panacea for such a condition of things, is, 

 we think, in the very last degree doubtful. 



Meiater Martin. By E. T. A. Hoffman. Edited by 

 Franz Lange, Ph.D. (Liinduu : Symons & Co.) — This 

 quaint romance, giving a vivid picture of media;val Nurem- 

 berg life among the members of a guild, is published in 

 ]\Iessrs. Symons' "German Classics" Series. Professor 

 Lange's notes on the idioms and grammatical construction 

 of the work are one and all to the purpose, and will be 

 found very helpful to the student of German. 



Ward c£' Lock's Technical Journal. (London : Ward, 

 Lock, k Co.). — Now that the system of apprenticeship is 

 practically as dead as the Heptarchy, sound and efficient 

 technical education has become an imperative necessity, 

 unless, indeed, the English artificer is to yield the palm to 

 his continental competitor, and his preeminence as a work- 

 man is to become a thing of the past. As a contribution 

 towards the solution of this problem, and with a view to 

 affording the means of self-instruction in the various details 

 of the mechanical and industrial arts, Messrs. Ward it Lock 

 have projected the work whose title heads this notice; and, 

 should the remainder fulfil the promise of the first part now 

 before us, it can hardly fail to supply a really valuable 

 addition to the bookshelves of the young architect, engineer, 

 builder, carpenter, metal-worker, manufacturing chemist, 

 textile-worker, gardener — or, in fact, worker with his hands 

 of every sort and description. An encyclnpjedic dictionary 

 of technical terms promises to be a most useful feature in 

 the new journal. It is profusely illustrated. 



Hints for Invalids and Travellers, witli Observations on 

 the Climate of Lu.vor and Egypt. By T. S. Maclean, M.B. 

 (London : H. K. Lewis. 18^1:). — All who, undeterred by 

 our present little difficulties on the banks of the Nile, would 

 visit the land of the Pharaohs for their health's sake, will 

 find a quantity of useful information in Mr. Maclean's little 

 pamphlet. 



Tlie Woiks JIanayers Handbook. By Walter S. 

 HuTTOX. (London : Crosby, Lock wood, & Co. 1885.) — 

 Practical from beginning to end, Mr. Huttou has produced 

 a book which cannot fail to prove invaluable to those for 

 whose benefit it has been compiled — the managers of 

 mechanical works of every sort and description. Into its 

 408 pages he has contrived to pack an amount of informa- 

 tion which is quite remarkable. The work is divided into 

 six sections, dealing, respectively, with (I.) Stationary and 

 Locomotive Steam-engines and Gas-engines ; (II.) Hy- 

 draulic Memoranda ; Pipes, Pumps, and Water-power ; 

 (III.) Mill work : Shafting, Gearing, and Pulleys ; (IV.) 

 Steam Boilers, Safety-vales, and Factory Chimneys; (V.) 

 Heat, Warming and Ventilating ; Melting, Cutting, and 

 Finishing Metals ; Alloys and Casting ; Wheel-cutting 

 and Screw-cutting ; and (VI.) Strength and Weight of 

 Materials, Workshop Data, etc. Under every one of 

 these headings the most recent information is supplied — 

 for example, the weights of metals rolled to gauge are given 

 in the New Imperial Standard Wire-gauge; the Birming- 

 ham Wire-gauge being now abolished by statute. One 

 conspicuous merit in Mr. Hutton's volume, and one which 

 will be readily recognised as such by all who make use of 

 it, is the virtual abolition of formula? from its pages, ami 

 the substitution of rules expressed in words, witli worked - 

 out examples. For there can be no doubt that, rightly or 



